UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 339 



time to be equally numerous.* From the great numbers that were 

 constantly passing overhead to or from that quarter, I had no doubt 

 of the truth of this statement. The mast had been chiefly consumed 

 in Kentucky, and the Pigeons, every morning a little before sunrise, 

 set oat for Indiana territory, the nearest part of which was about 

 sixty miles distant. Many of these returned before ten o'clock, and 

 the great body generally appeared a little after noon. I had left the 

 public road to visit the remains of the breeding place near Shelbyville, 

 and was traversing the woods with ray gun, on my way to Frankfort, 

 when about one o'clock the Pigeons, which I had observed flying the 

 greater part of the morning northerly, began to return in such im- 

 mense numbers as I never before had witnessed. Coming to an 

 opening by the side of a creek called the Benson, where I had a more 

 uninterrupted view, I was astonished at their appearance. They were 

 flying with great steadiness and rapidity, at a height beyond gunshot, 

 in several strata deep, and very compact. From right to left, as far 

 as the eye could reach, the breadth of this vast procession extend- 

 ed, seeming every where equally crowded. Curious to determine 

 how long this appearance would continue, I took out my watch to note 

 the time, and sat down to observe them. I continued there for more 

 than an hour, but instead of a diminution of this prodigious proces- 

 sion, it seemed rather to increase both in numbers and rapidity ; and 

 anxious to reach Frankfort before night, I rose and went on. About 

 four o'clock in the afternoon I crossed the Kentucky river, at the 

 town of Frankfort, at which time the living torrent above my head 

 seemed as numerous and as extensive as ever. Long after this I 

 observed them in large bodies that continued to pass for six or eight 

 minutes, and these again were followed by other detached bodies, all 

 moving in the same south-east direction, till after six in the evening 

 The great breadth of front which this mighty multitude preserved 

 would seem to intimate a corresponding breadth of their breeding 

 place, which by several gentlemen who had lately passed through 

 part of it, was stated to me at several miles. 



The vast quantity of mast which these multitudes consume, is a 

 serious loss to the bears, pigs, squirrels and other dependants on the 

 fruits of the forests. I have taken from the crop of a single Wild 

 Pigeon, a good handful of the kernels of beech nuts, intermixed with 

 acorns and chestnuts. To form a rough estimate of the daily con- 

 sumption of one of these immense flocks, let us first attempt to 

 calculate the numbers of that above mentioned as seen in passing 

 between Frankfort and the Indiana territory. If we suppose this 

 column to have been one mile in breadth, (and I believe it to have 

 been much more) and that it moved at the rate of one mile in a 

 minute, four hours, the time it continued passing, would make its 

 whole length two hundred and forty miles. Again, supposing that 

 each square yard of this moving body comprehended three Pigeons ; 

 the square yards in the whole space multiplied by three, would give 

 two thousand two hundred and thirty millions, two hundred and seventy- 

 two thousand Pigeons. An almost inconceivable multitude, and yet 

 probably far below the actual amount. Computing each of these to 

 consume half a pint of mast daily, the whole quantity at this rate 

 would equal seventeen millions, four hundred and twenty-four thousand 



*This was in the year 1810. Mr Wilson was then on his journey to New 

 Orleans. 



